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CHICAGO — Corn and soybean production probably will be smaller than the government predicted
after planting delays and unusually cool, dry weather stunted growth, field samples by the
Professional Farmers of America showed.

The corn harvest will be 13.46 billion bushels, less than the 13.763 billion estimated this
month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Pro Farmer said in an emailed report. The report was
compiled after a four-day tour last week of 2,600 fields in seven Midwest states. Soybean output
will be 3.158 billion bushels, below the USDA forecast of 3.255 billion.

The United States is the world’s largest grower of both crops.

After a wet May and June delayed planting, the USDA cut its soy-crop forecast by 4.8 percent on
Aug. 12 and reduced its corn estimate for a third straight month. July was the 20th coldest in 119
years in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa, the top U.S. grower, National Weather Service
data show. Soybean futures are up 14 percent from an 18-month low on Aug. 7, and corn rose 5.4
percent from a 35-month low on Aug. 13.

“Both the corn and soybean forecasts were a little smaller than people expected and lend
additional strength to prices with forecasts for hot, dry weather (this) week,” said Richard
Feltes, the vice president of research for R.J. O’Brien & Associates in Chicago.

The USDA is scheduled to release updated production forecasts on Sept. 12.

The cool, wet planting season and below-average summer temperatures are similar to 1996 and
1908, when freezing weather in late September or early October damaged crops, Dan Hicks, a
meteorologist for Freese-Notis Weather, said in a client report on Wednesday.

U.S. crops need heat, rain and a late-arriving frost to reach maturity, Nick Hanson, field
agronomist for the Pioneer seed-making unit at DuPont Co., said in Spencer, Iowa.